Is it me or are the latest crop of nurses addicted to their blackberries? Our hospital policy is no cell phones, blackberries on the unit but i see nurses everywhere texting on the job. I've heard of nurses texting in a patients room, I've seen nurses on facebook in the ED and texting down the hall.
What is it with the lack of professionalism? If I was in a doctor's office and he texting in the middle of an exam, I'd have a coronary. So why do nurses feel that they need to be accessible 24/7?
It's really a huge pet peeve of mine. I wish more managers would report these employees and start a paper trail.
I must say that I am addicted to my blackberry but there is a time and place for everything so I couldnt imagine a Nurse of any kind using their blackberry on the job. Maybe you should contact your direct Supervisor and let them know about your concerns. Patients definately want their Nurses to be attentive so using cell phones when its prohibited is a huge NO-NO!!!
I am a early 20's nursing student and I have my blackberry on me while I am at clinicals. I do use it to look up meds and otherthings on Skyscape, but when I have some down time, I use it to text and go on facebook.
I know I shouldn;t have "down time" but I do. Almost everyone has a couple minutes to check there messages (sometimes when I'm on the toliet!). I see no difference in me sitting in the break room texting versus the nurses who sit in the breakroom and nurses station gossiping or checking their mail.
Do I text where patients can see me? No. Do i text when I should be charting/learning/cleaning up poop? no. I text responsibly and judiciously.
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
i was one of the nurses who defended the nurse who the student wanted to report to "the hospital" for "texting for 3 1/2 hours straight" instead of "taking care of her patient." i still think that iphones, treos and blackberries have a lot of applications in the work place. i tell someone they weigh 71.4 kg and they ask "how many pounds is that?" i can look it up. i want the np to come look at my patient but it's not urgent, i'll text her. or him. i'm updating the surgeon with "mr. bigbum just woke up and followed commands" or the nephrologist with "mrs. lichtenstein just made 35cc of urine" i'll text. i've written policies, procedures and class notes on my palm with a keyboard.
but i have to say, when i was in the er this afternoon being ruled out (and i did rule out) for an mi, the 20-something student nurse was texting with one thumb while taking my pulse with her other hand. i heard the little beeps and looked over my shoulder and there she was. that ticked me off!
it's totally unprofessional to have them out at work, unless of course, looking up work-related things. even then it LOOKS unprofessional and if i were to use mine in front of patients i'd feel obligated to explain to them that it was work related like the above poster said.
oh i know death notifications are in person. but the wives here have a key caller system, they will call to let you know if something happened in the unit (injury/death of someone not your spouse). but assuming he was injured, he would call me directly (if he was able to)
My government freezes communications until they notify the immediate family. I'd rather hear it from them than the "grapevine". I don't need to know about unit injuries when I'm at work.
there's just too many job opportunities for me to settle for a work place that doesn't allow me to use a blackberry/ipod in a reasonable manner at work, i think the op is talking about unreasonable usage, but who's to say what that is exactly.
that's why most health care orgs don't actually enforce the no cellphone rule, besides they'd have to nail most of the execs and docs too, yeah right.
Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.
You are my twin, OP.
I work with 20 somethings that are on their phones constantly. No one is that important that they can't turn off their cell.
Before you all flame me, the unit has a phone number and it can be used. I'm tired of hearing "my child may need to reach me, etc". My kids lived having only the work phone number to reach me. The schools had the number, my friends had the number if they were watching the kids. I was only ever called twice at work in ten years for childhood emergencies.
Majority of the offenders I have seen are well over their 20's, a sub clinical instructor I had the other day was on it a lot during our clinical shift. Another group of students kept having problems locating a CI and and found her in the report room on ebay :| I am 30 myself, but I have to be honest, some of the best co nurses I worked with were younger. Never saw a phone pulled out, were very attentive to their patients, did a lot of the stuff themselves and didn't ask the CNA's. This wasn't limited to just the younger nurses either.
I think the problem with unprofessionalism is not an age based problem, it's a individual based problem that doesn't discriminate.
To the above poster who thinks I'm stereotyping. Yes, I should have said "the majority" of these offenders are under 30. I'm sure there are some "older" nurses who do it too. I stand corrected.
And nurses have every resource available to them on every desktop computer to "look things up." The main thing is that the policy states "no blackberries (except for doctors with pagers, etc)" and folks are just ignoring it. The "I have kids" excuse doesn't hold water either....
I understand that technology is here, I have no problem with that. I just can't stand the lack of professionalism I guess.
Facebook had to be removed from all our computers because of patient/family complaints.
Just a vent...
Just from a students POV
I have a Droid (I like it better then blackberry) and it can be a wealth of information. I have an Ipod touch to and if I remember I usually bring that to clinicals in case their was a question if I was texting. We are encouraged to get the software like Nursing Central on our phones.
Our computers at clinicals can access the same stuff but when I have a patient chart open and I am reviewing the history and stuff, given the way it's set up and logs you out a lot if you aren't active for x amount of minutes. It is a lot more convenient to pull out my phone or Ipod and look up the words and stuff I am needing on that while keeping the window open of the chart. As students we also don't have badges that log us in and out and it literally is a long tedious process to log in and out of the system. I am sure to some people it looks like I am texting or playing on my phone. So what I do, I am not sneaky about it at all, I am right there with the phone in the open so if their was any questions it could be verified.
We have a policy to about cell phone use, we can use it for these apps though, like i said, it was encouraged to go this route. I would be way to afraid to text in the halls or in a pt room or anything like that. I do have 4 kids and of course that is a concern especially when my husband is out of town in the winter and I am on evening clinicals and my eldest son is the one babysitting. Our school has a person that can be called that can always locate us, but that is for day clinicals. (we only had one night group) and where I am on the floor always changes. So I check my phone when I go on a potty break, and lunch. I take a bathroom break usually twice a night unless I had an excess amount of water. Some of the instructors also have the students text them when they need them because the pagers are often not reliable. Our instructor used the pager and one night when we met up after clinical was over to walk to the cars he pager went off and it was from a student 3 hours earlier.
Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.
but i have to say, when i was in the er this afternoon being ruled out (and i did rule out) for an mi, the 20-something student nurse was texting with one thumb while taking my pulse with her other hand. i heard the little beeps and looked over my shoulder and there she was. that ticked me off!
now, that would annoy the cr@p out of me, too! how ironic that the roles were reversed in a way from the prior scenario with the icu nurse. how unusual for a student to be that casual, especially in the er. were you able to suppress a comment??? glad the mi was r/o, though.
first, i don't know where all you guys are getting the $$$ for your blackberry and the spare iphone and how the school can require that, but then i'm cheap and have a $9.99 trac-fone that i keep in my pocket on vibrate in case one of my kids calls me-- which is unlikely to happen. i only got it so i won't be stranded by the side of the road alone in the dark in my car if (i mean when) it breaks.
i have a theory about all this, and i think that the texting/game playing, etc., or messaging doctors, etc. ie how individual a uses the same device as individual b, is just a part of who they are, and what kind of worker they would be whether cell phones existed or not. if individual a always has good work habits, integrity and focus, i see them with a phone, i figure they are using it for a legitimate reason. individual b has her phone, and i know from working with her that she would probably be reading intouch or people or gossiping at the nurse's station, no big surprise to find out she's texting her bff on her phone.
i have to agree that some younger nurses may be unfairly judged by others. likely, if you are conscientious it won't be by people who work with you.
blackheartednurse-- not sure if anyone answered your question. i didn't check prices, though.-----
ya know -even though i suppose i'm at the tail end of the blackberry thing agewise(i don't own one) my first thought when reading that post was not about the device, but the fruit. And i do love fresh blackberries!
At my unit, we all carry text pagers and are expected to check them everytime they go off, which can often be in a patient's room. Many times the page is something like "help with a boost in 36B," but other times it will be "phone call, line 2" which might be to schedule a test for a pt or to receive a critical lab result or something. If my pager goes off in the room, I excuse myself, check it, and if it requires immediate action, I hit the call bell, ask the unit secretary if a message can be taken, or could she page the rest of the team to do whatever it is since I'm tied up, or whatever.
This is very disruptive to pts, but it's tolerated because it is work-related. Seeing someone using a blackberry or iphone is often scoffed or judged by the non-connected among us at because it is presumed the user is using it for personal reasons.
I use my blackberry at work for both work and personal reasons, and if the latter, I do it when not in a pts room and not talking to anyone for work-related reasons. It's all about proper use and etiquette. If I am sitting at the nurse's station chatting with colleagues, I fail to see how this is more professional than discreetly sending a text to my wife letting her know I'm likely to be late. I'm on the unit usually for 13 hours at a time, rarely getting off the unit for a significant break, barely having time to eat and communicating this way to family members is much less disruptive than having my wife call me on the unit phone, having me paged (see the beginning of this post) and then taking the time to talk to her on the phone.
Of course, if I am giggling and texting anyone while doing patient care, that's just obnoxious. There is a time and a place for that. But if my work banned my blackberry altogether, I'd be following ItsTheDude for a job opening. I really dislike being disrespected.
). I see no difference in me sitting in the break room texting versus the nurses who sit in the breakroom and nurses station gossiping or checking their mail. 
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and it can be a wealth of information. I have an Ipod touch to and if I remember I usually bring that to clinicals in case their was a question if I was texting. We are encouraged to get the software like Nursing Central on our phones. 
kiciaMARiE
6 Posts
I must say that I am addicted to my blackberry but there is a time and place for everything so I couldnt imagine a Nurse of any kind using their blackberry on the job. Maybe you should contact your direct Supervisor and let them know about your concerns. Patients definately want their Nurses to be attentive so using cell phones when its prohibited is a huge NO-NO!!!